The present invention is directed to snowboard boots and, more particularly, to a snowboard boot capable of movement in two axial directions.
A snowboard is a variety of ski that glides on snow. Whereas a skier is mounted on the skis so as to face the front of the skis in the longitudinal direction of the skis, a snowboarder usually is mounted on the snowboard facing the side of the snowboard, usually facing at a small angle to the exact side of the snowboard. To impart a propulsive force to the snowboard, the snowboarder usually bends his or her knees while leaning toward the front of the snowboard. Thus, the ankle is inclined both forward with respect to the snowboarder (to the side of the snowboard) as well as to the side with respect to the snowboarder (to the front of the snowboard).
To operate the snowboard effectively, the boot worn by the snowboarder should accommodate the required inclination angles of the ankle. Some attempts to accommodate the inclination angles of the ankle are disclosed in DE 3,622,746; FR 2,719,197; EP 646,334; EP 772,982; and IT 1,255,752. In these references, an upper portion of the boot is pivotably connected to a lower portion of the boot so as to pivot around a longitudinal axis located above the heel of the boot. While such structures help to accommodate sideways inclination of the ankle, it is known that the human foot does not readily incline sideways unless the ankle also inclines forward at the same time. Thus, prior art boots that accommodate sideways inclination without also accommodating forward inclination do not work very effectively. Furthermore, sideways inclination of the ankle is not always accommodated effectively by a boot that pivots solely around one axis.